BELIEVING IS SEEING

 John 20:29

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

               In the 1994 movie, The Santa Clause, Scott Calvin finds himself transported to the North Pole as the new Santa Claus. Scot’s natural skepticism will not allow him to believe what he is seeing. He expresses his disbelief to Judy, an elf. “I see all this, but I don’t believe it.” Her response is, “Seeing isn’t believing. Believing is seeing.” She could have taken that line right out of the pages of the Bible.

                In our world today, the balance of opinion is on the side of seeing is believing. We want solid, scientific evidence before we will trust something as true. Our latest battle with COVID-19 is a prime example of this. On all sides of the debate, people have demanded proof before they would believe. Few people were willing to trust what they were being told at face value.

                Thomas would have been very comfortable in our skeptical world. He was not present the first time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection. When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen Jesus, he refused to believe them. He demanded tangible proof. A week later, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, except this time Thomas was present. Jesus offered to Thomas the tangible proof that he demanded. Thomas was overwhelmed and responded in unqualified worship of Jesus. Then Jesus made a remarkable statement. Blessed are those who do not get to see yet believe. To put it another way, believing is seeing.

                Throughout the Gospel of John, the word believe takes center stage. When I was a boy growing up in church, I was a part of a group called Christian Service Brigade. It was like a Christian Boy Scouts. A big part of the program was getting us into the Bible. One of the assignments that we were given was to read through the Gospel of John and underline every time the word believe is used. It became clear very quickly that believing is the central focus of the Gospel. At the end of John’s Gospel, he summarizes what he wrote with these words; Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31)

                In a very real way, when it comes to faith in Jesus Christ, believing is seeing. When we believe what the Bible teaches us about Jesus our eyes are opened. We begin to see things from a different perspective. We begin to see things we have never seen before. A whole new world opens up to us. For the first time we are able to see beyond the tangible, the obvious, to the amazing and eternal. God goes from being a myth to a reality. The fog of human existence is replaced with a new clarity. Believing becomes seeing.

                When Peter wrote his first letter to the believers, he stressed that believing supersedes seeing. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9) Peter could have been writing those words to us. In fact, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he was. We have not had the privilege of seeing Jesus in the ways that Peter and Thomas did, yet through faith we can see Jesus and put our trust in Him. Believing is seeing.

                This is at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. The book of Hebrews distills this truth in one verse. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

                In The Santa Claus, over time the reality that Scot Calvin had become the new Santa began to become real to him. The Bible tells us that when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we become new creations. Our old life is replaced by a new life in Christ. As our belief in this promise grows stronger, the reality of this spiritual transformation becomes more and more real to us. We begin to see the evidence that God is real and that He is changing our lives. Believing becomes seeing.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.